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WHY PCs SHOULD GO - (2)

Close on the heels of our interview yesterday with Arun Tambimuttu, a further analysis on how tenable the Provincial Councils are, has followed - this being the work of Professor G. H. Peiris, a well known Peradeniya academic. He proceeds to debunk the familiar theories that are adduced to justify the Provincial Council system that was thrust upon us by one very besieged President once upon a time, and his tormentors who since then have seen a good deal of water go under the bridge as well...

G H. Peiris suggests that it is observable that for the most part the arguments that are adduced to justify the PC system are those that have to do with reasons of politics -- political expediency -- or what is seen as the politically inevitable, rather than anything that involves the efficacy or manageability of the Provincial Councils themselves.

This seems to be quite odd, considering that what eventually serves the people is the system and its usefulness as an institution, rather than the extraneous arguments that are used to justify it. The people care whether a rat would catch mice and not whether the feline would be useful in terms of keeping two fighting siblings happy, which would be a secondary consideration at best?

As the Professor says, the fighting may be over, but there is no evidence that the secessionist designs of some of the extremist elements are at an end. The less that is said about the contention that there was general acceptance of the 13th Amendment by the polity the better, on the other hand, for the simple reason that President J R Jayewardene's hand was forced, due to events that followed the '83 riots, to take just one example.

The general premise on which the PCs are recommended is the one that they are going to be the panacea for all ills, with the emphasis on the fact that the international community (and by this it has to be understood that people mean India, in this instance) can be appeased. But the Provincial Councils are in no way organically linked to any evolving political process that the Sri Lankan people have ownership of.

In much simpler terms -- nobody in Sri Lanka wanted the Provincial Councils, and that is the stark, simple reality. The fact that it is now an imposed 'reality' does not mean in any way that the PCs neutralize all of the upstanding issues that are worrisome.

The canard is that the PCs were a result of agreement by all parties, but the political reality in those days immediately past the parripu drops didn't leave much room for political consensus. All this taken together with the fact that the PCs as Arun Tambimuttu says are neither organically relating to peoples needs or efficient and profitable - 'white elephant' he said - make them totally untenable except on the basis of what can be called extraneous considerations.

That's no basis on which to devolve power or address minority grievances. National problems cannot be solved on the basis of expediency or convenience, and the only tenable argument for the Provincial Councils in effect is that the PCs as an institution will address Tamil grievances, a doubtful proposition to begin with.

The 13th Amendment never delivered anything, and the Indian Peace Keeping Forces will bear testimony to that. There is no likelihood either, that this piece of legislation will deliver now, at this late stage.

That the war was won and there is peace is no basis for the PCs to remain, as there is a certain category of people who still think the losers, the LTTE that is, and not the Tamil or Sinhala people, should write the history of the war, and the story of the peace. This is a poor basis on which to justify a system that seems to belong in history, this aberration called the Provincial Councils.

LEADERSHIP IN MOTION _ EFFICACY OF Local government -- President

It is my privilege to address you at this Commonwealth Local Government Conference in the Ugandan capital of Kampala. The selected theme of this Conference “Developmental local government: putting local government at the heart of development” is appropriate and relevant to us all.

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National Anthem of Sri Lanka

A letter to the Editor published in the Daily News of May 9, 2013 under the caption “Respect for the National Anthem” Reflects “Under British colonial rule in the past days, it was the practice to play the British National Anthem “God Save the King or Queen at all cinemas before the screening of the film,

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